counting coots

Yes, I know its a gull, but if you squint a bit, and maybe look away from the screen and maybe flick through your copy of Sibley you will eventually see a Bald Eagle. It's like a do it yourself Magic Eye for bird ID. Or not.

Yesterday morning was pretty foggy (or a corblimeypeasoupah guv as they say in these parts), so I had a look around as these are the kind of conditions that brought me my only Lapwing in the distant past, so it was worth double checking the shapes that came out of the gloom. However, as might be expected all it produced was gulls and cormorants. The fog began to lift mid morning when I spotted a couple of GBB's on the north shore that had a flat fish of some sort, and having a good old munch. It is likely that this had been there a while as the usual scenario is that a Black-headed finds it, a Common Gull nicks it, a GBB eats it and a Heron tries to get it on the act. So I was a witness to phases three and four, but don't know how successful the heron was. Other than that, it has been the usual fair, but I was thinking yesterday that I have not seen any Linnets this year, which is a disappointment - they were regular on one of the waste areas last winter.

There have been reports on the London birders wiki of argentatus type Herring Gulls by Wandsworth Park, so I guess I'll have to brush up on my bloody gull identification and work out which is which. You never know, the powers that be might split them into bona fide species, and the chance for a patch armchair tick is too high to ignore. Anyway, despite the punkbirders guys encouragement to "Say no to gulls!" - when it's all you've got, you have to get excited about them. So, excited I am, and I shall inform you dear reader of the outcome and perhaps even upload a shite picture of a 'putative fuscus' or whatever they say. You lucky people!